Christine Johnson has been married to Nathan since 1993 and has two daughters who she homeschools. They live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia, where she tries to fit in as a transplanted Yank. She blogs at Domestic Vocation about her life as a wife, mother, homeschooler, and Lay Dominican.
We all start out with the best intentions when we want to add a new devotional practice to our lives. Sometimes those intentions get hit hard by reality and the guilt sets in. It is at those times that we should trade in that guilt for grace and let God invite us back into an encounter with him in prayer.
Christine has a wonderful journey towards the Angelus that should be comforting to anyone who struggles to add a new prayer to their life.
Christine Johnson and the Angelus
I had sporadically prayed the Angelus for years, and even had an alarm set on my phone to remind me. However, I was never quite consistent or good at it. I had been thinking about praying it for priests and seminarians at noon, which would give me a mid-day prayer to add to Lauds and Vespers each day. (I’m required to pray Morning and Evening Prayer as a Lay Dominican.)
I was overthinking, as usual, and trying to figure out if I ought to do this or not.
Then one day, I was listening to my playlist on shuffle when I heard bells ringing on a new track. I looked at my radio for song information and saw “ANGELUS” scrolling across the screen — it was the Latin version from a CD I had in my iTunes library!
I was about to skip it when I noticed that it was exactly noon. That was the beginning of a more consistent prayer habit.
So I pray the Angelus most days at noon, dedicating it to priests, seminarians, and other religious. There are days when I miss the notice altogether and other days when I see it late and pray it on the spot. If my children are with me, they’ll pray it with me, as well. I’m in the process of teaching it to my husband in hopes that it can be a devotion our whole family keeps, whether or not we’re together.
